Professor Schiff's Guilt by Agur Schiff

Author:Agur Schiff
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781954404175
Publisher: New Vessel Press
Published: 2023-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

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Ladies and gentlemen, members of the Special Tribunal, Madam Attorney General, Head of the Investigation Team:

The Ministry of Justice’s representative, Special Investigator George Aboagye, visited me a few days ago. He came to ask my opinion on an idea concocted by the attorney general’s office. The idea is this: in the trial—if indeed I am put on trial—the accused—namely, me—shall be seated in a booth made of reinforced glass. Aboagye explained that the glass booth was intended primarily for the defendant’s safety—meaning, my safety. The attorney general holds that we should not underestimate the strong feelings that the trial, if it occurs, might arouse in the public.

But I ask you, ladies and gentlemen: Is this glass booth truly intended for my safety? Because I suspect that although you may be genuinely concerned with the defendant’s survival and good health throughout the spectacle, what is more important for you is to set the stage properly. It’s very clear that the trial, if there is one, will be—let’s be bold enough to say it plainly—a show trial.

I completely understand the historical importance of such an event, however, and so I can accept the theatricality: here is a man who reaps the profits of the transatlantic slave trade, trapped before us in a glass booth, day after day, week after week, unable to sit comfortably or stretch his limbs. Do you really think the spectators will pick up on the ironic subtleties of the metaphor? Do you honestly think a defendant squeezed into a glass box will suggest the image of people crowded into the belly of the Brookes slave ship? How many of the viewers will even know that infamous illustration? Without any intent to disparage the local crowd’s imagination and abstraction skills, I’m afraid quite a few of them will confuse the glass booth with a shower stall in a three-star hotel (the likes of which, unfortunately, most of them will never have the chance to use). Others will see a resemblance to the glass cases that house rare displays in natural history museums. Do you think I am a rare display?

That, incidentally, is also what I asked Special Investigator Aboagye. I’m sure you can guess his answer. What he said was, “Professor Schiff, not only are you not rare, there are many others like you. Far too many. That is why you are here.” He then suggested his own metaphor for the glass booth. “You won’t be the first to be presented in a glass booth in our country,” he said. “Before you came another European who carried the guilt of the Western world upon his shoulders.”

“And you put him in a glass booth, too?” I asked.

“He put himself in it,” answered Mr. Aboagye. “He was here roughly a decade ago. He toured the main streets while seated in a bulletproof glass cell. You know, a custom-built vehicle . . . A one-of-a-kind Mercedes.” Mr. Aboagye’s expression remained inscrutable. “This distinguished guest needed the glass to protect him from mud sprayed by the motorcycle cavalcade.

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